


A Pencil to Rewind

by XxxbladeangelxxX



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)
Genre: ...well sort of, Attempt at introspection, Canonical Character Death, F/M, Gen, I Wrote This Instead of Sleeping, I don't know what else to say, Peter's Walkman, Sort Of Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-01
Updated: 2014-09-01
Packaged: 2018-02-15 16:22:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 596
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2235555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XxxbladeangelxxX/pseuds/XxxbladeangelxxX
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A look at the impact of the oft forgotten Meredith Quill and how a seemingly worthless gift went on to save the galaxy.</p>
<p>
  <em>All she had to gift to her only son on her deathbed was a cheap Sony Walkman and two homemade mix tapes</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Pencil to Rewind

**Author's Note:**

> To be completely honest? I started writing this literally as soon as I'd stepped out of the cinema sometime early this August though it ended up half finished and forgotten until now when suddenly my mind decided it was a far better idea to write fan fiction than to finish completing my course work, so here goes.  
> Comments and constructive criticisms will be greatly appreciated  
> Posted with minimal editing/unbeta'd

There’s something about death and life after death that draws the attention and alongside it the curiosity of mortal beings. Mortals have an instinctive need to know, to understand, to remember and to a certain extent pass on a part of themselves and their understanding to those who will someday stand in their place. Consider Peter Quill's beloved Walkman, gifted to him by his loving yet deathly ill mother in an attempt to pass on her love for music to her only son. It went on to become so much more, an anchor for the young and frightened Peter to give him strength and to remind him of his courage and the love of his mother, surrounded as he was by the hostile and yet strangely accommodating Ravagers. It became a touchstone to help the still young Peter remember the burning passion of his mother and the sense of wrong and right that she had once instilled in him even as he learnt out of necessity another lesson in thievery, immorality and treachery at Yondou's hands. It was The Walkman and the memories it held that allowed the young, moral, kind and ultimately good part of the not hundred percent a dick to continue to grow into his own.

While the Ravegers encouraged the grown man to wreak havoc and care only about survival. The innocuous Walkman cradled within its seemingly brittle plastic shell the remnants of a child with a budding potential to do great things, and earn the name that his beloved mother had once affectionately bestowed upon him, until such a time he could meet others who held a similar potential for great things. And who would help, however unwittingly, the sheltered and fragile bud of potential within the now fully grown Peter bloom and come into its own. Indeed the harmless seeming piece of Terran technology is a prime example of the mortal need to be remembered long after death and in doing so affect others. 

Actions greater in scale to that of this one desperate dying mother have led to the formation of nations and entire solar systems, empires have risen and crumbled into dust overnight as a result of grand gestures and highly prized jewels and trinkets that are reverently passed on from one generation unto the next. Entire planets have been saved solely on the history and value of golden crowns and ‘holy’ swords and those who had once passed them on Kings, Queens, Priests, Ministers and heroes are held in the highest regards and remembered long after their deaths for the somewhat limited impact they have made after death.

Meredith Quill was a fierce, passionate, brilliant and yet simple woman, neither famous nor rich she had no shiny baubles or holy relics to pass on to another in order to mark her place within the world. All she had to gift to her only son on her deathbed was a cheap Sony Walkman and two homemade mix tapes, Meredith Quill’s supposedly ‘worthless’ legacy would go on to save the fate of an entire galaxy. In the end what had driven the often dis remembered Meredith was not a need for recognition or universal remembrance but her love for her son, her handsome little star lord, and her wish to share her deep love of music with him. It was this unending love coupled with the human tendency live on in the things around us that helped shape one of the greatest guardians of the galaxy

And they say that you have to be remembered to make a difference.

**Author's Note:**

> The title refers to the use of pencils in order to manually rewind a tape cassette, so yeah. Comments and kudos are much appreciated.


End file.
